A variety of types of portlights, both openable and non-openable, have been available for installation on cabin and hull walls of boats for many years to provide natural light and, in the case of openable portlights, ventilation.
Bronze-framed fixed and opening ports, using glass lenses, have long been known but are very expensive and are not readily constructible in the sleek, oblong shapes which go well with modern Fiberglass boat designs.
Fixed portlights consisting merely of a sheet of Plexiglas.TM. screwed over a bead of sealant to the exterior of a boat cabin wall cover a light-admitting opening are inexpensive to make and install but tend to have a rather unfinished-looking appearance, are set out at least by the thickness of the lens from the outside surface of the cabin wall, and are not openable.
In the last few decades, a number of openable portlights, using lenses and/or frames of rigid, molded plastics material, have been available. Those of which I am aware have, in my opinion, been less than entirely satisfactory. Typical problems involve protrusion of the hinges or closed latches into the viewing area of the port or into the living space of the cabin to a sufficient extent to bruise persons moving in the cabin. In at least some instances, these prior portlights have been relatively expensive because of the need for molding of the lens to incorporate hinge structure. Installation has often been time consuming and required two people (one person inside the boat and another outside). At least in some units, interior and exterior portlight frames must be separately affixed, as by screws, to the adjacent wall of the boat, which takes additional installation time and thus creates additional installation cost.
The present invention arises from an attempt to overcome these and a variety of other drawbacks in existing portlights.